Leo Survives…A Lot of Trailer Rides

Thanks sooooo much for all the kind comments and commiserations! It was definitely a low point in life with P, and I’m pleased to report that it’s been 11 entire days since P’s last vet visit. He did try this out:

But AGF slapped some epoxy right on and said to ignore it.

Despite being med–free for 6 days now, his eye continues to remain wide open and as far as I can tell, the pupil isn’t dilated anymore. The vet had said it could take 2 weeks for the Atropine to wear off, and it’s been 11 days, but he’ll continue to wear the eye patch on his fly mask until Friday anyway.

Leo had an insanely long weekend. It started Thursday, when I attempted the right lead canter. Up until then, I’ve only cantered him 3x, and only to the left. He has an incredible canter and is so adjustable, you forget he raced just last month…until you try to steer him, that is.

This was the first canter. I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing with my body other than I had in my head that I was conveying relaxation and trying to stay as still as possible. The next time I cantered him I experimented with sitting in the saddle and making small adjustments with my body, which resulted in an incredibly uphill canter that of course was NOT caught on camera #FirstWorldProblems

But the right lead canter was a much different beast. He bolted into it, then bolted around the arena, almost careening into jump standards and the arena fence. Then to the left was as quiet as a mouse. Luckily we were heading to Trainer B’s the next day, and he fixed errrrything. Hallelujah.

Saturday was a local-ish schooling CT/Jumper show that I had planned on taking Leo to just to hang out, but I ended up coercing my BO into entering with a client’s horse so I’d at least have something interesting to watch. So Leo got back on the trailer with a new friend, and we spent a good 4 hours just hanging out in the atmosphere. He learned horse shows = ear rubs and treats, and was relaxed the entire time.

Sunday it was BACK on the trailer to go BACK to Trainer B’s, to make up for lost time since Trainer B has selfishly been competing (and winning) on his own horses. We started in the main arena just waking over poles of various heights, then headed to the dressage/gymnastic arena where (drum roll) Leo and I “jumped” for the first time! I mean, as much as a 16.3 hand horse jumps a cross-rail.

Then we headed to the XC field and as nervous as he felt the first time he saw all the crazy jumps, he was super brave about stepping over the log back and forth a zillion times, and we called it a day.

We’re heading back there Thursday (and I miiiiight have company, which means MEDIA) before dear Leo gets the week off while I head on family vacay. I think he was just glad to get a day off of getting in the trailer.